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Public Education Association 
Study No. 43 



?»«*•* ""^^ '_., 



THE GERMAN SYSTEM 

OF 

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLING 



BY 
RALPH C. BUSSER, LL. B. 

American Xxmsulr Erfurt, Germany 



Published by the 

PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 
1015 Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia 

February, 1913 



Public Education Association 
•• Study No. 40 



THE GERMAN SYSTEM 

OF 

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLING 



BY 
RALPH C. BUSSER, LL. B. 

American Consul, Erfurt, Germany 



Published by the 

PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 
1015 Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia 

February, 1913 






Copyright, 1913, by 
Public Education Association 



• •• 



/ 



©CI.A343325 

I 



CONTENTS. 

Part I. Outline of System. 

Page 

Classification 9 

Organization, Government and Maintenance 10 

Part II. General Trade Schools. 

A. Industrial Continuation Schools. 

Aim and Character 14 

Vocational Studies 15 

Business Instruction ; 16 

General Instruction for Unskilled Workers 17 

Cultivation of Citizenship 18 

Physical Training and Recreation Facilities 19 

Attendance and Time of Instruction 20 

Training of Teachers 22 

B. Industrial Art and Mechanics' Schools. 

Industrial Art Schools 23 

Mechanics' Evening Schools 24 

Admission and Courses of Instruction 26 

Part III. Special Trade Schools. 

Trade Schools as a Substitute for Apprenticeship 29 

Courses of Instruction 30 

Schools for Builders and Woodworkers 32 

Textile Schools 35 

Part IV. Engineering and Scientific Schoois. 

Mechanical Engineering Schools 38 

Schools of Technology : 

Aim and Character 39 

Organization and Scope 40 

Facilities for Practical Work 41 

Technical High Schools 43 

3 



Part V. Auxiliary Educational Facilities. 

Page 

School Workshops * 45 

School Exhibitions 45 

Workmaster Courses 46 

Experimental Shops 48 

Part VI. Vocational Schools for Girls 49 

Part VII. Relation of Schools to National Industry. 

Development to Meet Requirements of Different Grades 

of Workers 54 

Adaptation of Schools to Local Requirements 55 

Co-operation Between Technical Schools and Related 

Industries 56 

Public Control and National Co-operation 57 

Utility of Art in Industrial Education 60 

Service of Schools in Promoting Germany's Export 

Trade 62 



Consulate of the United States of America, 
erfurt, germany. 

August 30, 19 1 2. 
Mr. James S. Hiatt, Secretary, 

Public Education Association of Philadelphia, 

1 01 5 Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia. 

Dear Sir : 

In compliance with your recent request for an up-to- 
date report on the German system of industrial education 
for publication, I take pleasure in sending to you through 
the Department of State a copy of my special report on the 
subject in which your Association is interested. 

The monograph herewith submitted is not intended as 
a complete description of the organization and methods of 
industrial education in Germany, but merely as an exposi- 
tion of the general principles of the system.. This system 
represents the result of many years' study and experience 
of the German people in endeavoring to solve the problems 
involved in the education of the industrially employed youth 
of the manufacturing communities — a topic which is now 
occupying the attention of the educational experts and re- 
formers in the United States, Great Britain and other civi- 
lized countries. 

Trusting that my contribution to the literature on the 
subject of industrial education will be of service to you and 
your colleagues, I remain 

Respectfully, 

Ralph C. Busser, 

Consul. 

Forwarded Sep. 19, 1912. 
Department of State. 



FOREWORD. 

Again in the rivalry of nations, the palm must be 
awarded to thorough, painstaking, scientific Germany. The 
admirable monograph by Ralph C. Busser, Esq., a member 
of the Philadelphia Bar, and for several years Consul at 
Erfurt, Germany, can scarcely fail to evoke enthusiasm 
over what that country has accomplished and is accom- 
plishing through her continuation and industrial schools. 
For us the lesson is : How far from accidental is the present 
wonderful industrial activity in that country and its inva- 
sion of all markets in almost all known lines of trade. 

American trade schools, of course, furnish opportunity 
for those who are able and willing to give their entire time 
to the increase of their industrial efficiency. But in the 
absence of continuation schools, there remain unhelped 
the larger number of too early conscripts in the industrial 
army, who imder the pressure of necessity are obliged to 
contribute by the work of their hands to the support of their 
families. It has been said of the people of a certain other 
country that at fourteen they are remarkably precocious boys 
but that at forty their mental equipment and attitude remain 
substantially those of a boy of fourteen. In some sense this 
is true of those who are too early forced into wage earning, 
and who are compelled by the struggle for existence to enter 
upon a career of continuous work, before they are either 
matured or equipped sufficiently to approximate their maxi- 
mum attainment. 

For this group continuation schools offer the greatest 
help. They prevent the pressure of industrial necessity 
from crystallizing the condition of the young worker upon 
leaving school. They continue the restraining and beneficial 
effects of school discipline through the entire formative 
period. They revive the ancient pride of craftsmanship and 
promote greater intelligence, not only as to a particular 
industry, but as to the whole world of which that industry 
forms a part. 



If it be argued that some of our manufacturers have 
decried the results of industrial education as shown in this 
country, the answer is that the fault is not with the system, 
but with the way in which it is applied. What Germany has 
done America can do, and, indeed, has already begun to do 
in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. 

The industrial point of view may be over-emphasized. 
The continuation schools lead not merely to added efficiency, 
but to extended education along general lines, continuing 
the influence and stimulus of the school, and ever tending 
toward a finer type of citizen. 

Perhaps the most striking feature of the whole system, 
so vividly depicted in the following pages, is its consistent 
adaptation to local needs, since it always takes the student 
where it finds him and provides him the means of develop- 
ment in his own pursuit. 

Have we not in America erred in turning out too many 
youths "educated" just beyond the point where they are 
willing to work with their hands, and where they are in- 
clined to prefer the "genteel" clerkship to the better paid and 
more valuable labor of the trained mechanic or the farmer? 
It is here that the co-operation between educational and 
industrial systems would be most effective. It may be that 
the solution of one phase of the problem of the high cost of 
living lies along this line. 

It is worthy of note that we see in the German "con- 
tinuation" school what we would term a "social centre," 
extending the moral influence of the school practically to 
the end of the formative period in the boy's life. 

To the student of sociology the subject is of absorbing 
interest as blazing the way toward better ideals and higher 
standards for all humanity. 

Ira Jewell Williams. 
Philadelphia. 

January 22, 191 3. 

8 



GERMAN SYSTEM OF INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLING. 



PART I. OUTLINE OF SYSTEM. 

Classification. 

Discussion of the industrial schools of Germany can 
be simplified by classifying them as follows : 

( 1 ) General trade schools ; 

(2) Special trade schools; 

(3) Engineering and scientific schools. 

The general trade schools embrace the industrial con- 
tinuation schools (gewerbliche Fortbildungs-Schulen) or 
part-time schools for young people between the ages of 14 
and 17 (or 15 and 18), who have finished their general 
education in the common schools (Volksschulen) and are 
employed in the industries as apprentices, helpers or other 
manual workers; the mechanics' schools (Handwerker- 
Schulen) with Sunday morning and week-day evening 
classes for the technical and theoretical instruction of jour- 
neymen; and the industrial art schools (Kunstgewerbe- 
Schulen) for the better education of artisans and mechanics 
in the theory, art and technique of their respective crafts. 

The special trade schools (gewerbliche Fachschulen) 
provide specialized technical and manual training in par- 
ticular trades, aiming to take the place of ordinary appren- 
ticeship in whole or in part by preparing the learner for 
pursuit of the trade as master, journeyman or skilled ap- 
prentice. In Germany they are generally understood to 
include such institutions as textile schools (Fachschulen 
fuer Textil-Industrie), special schools for the metal indus- 
try (gewerbliche Fachschulen fuer Metall-Industrie), 
schools for builders (Baugewerkschulen), schools for wood- 
workers, tanners, clockmakers, opticians, potters, copper- 



smiths, bookbinders, printers, decorators, dyers, shoemakers, 
tin workers, plumbers, locksmiths, blacksmiths, toymakers, 
gardeners, brewers, bakers, millers, butchers, barbers, tail- 
ors, etc. 

Each of the engineering and scientific schools makes a 
specialty of some of the following technical professions : 
Civil, mechanical, electrical and marine engineering, archi- 
tecture, shipbuilding, navigation, forestry, mining and 
metallurgy, chemistry, pharmacy, and general science. 
Architecture is also the principal course in the Schools for 
Builders, which are classed as special trade schools, because 
all of the building trades are there taught. The highest 
grade of engineering or scientific school is the Technische 
Hochschule. 

Organisation, Government and Maintenance. 

Most of the trade schools in Germany have been organ- 
ized either by the respective trade guilds or other industrial 
associations, or by the city or town in which they are located 
Others were established by private endowment. The 
higher technical schools and industrial art schools are 
in most cases either State or municipal institutions. While 
the special trade schools are still largely managed by repre- 
sentatives of the appropriate guilds, industrial associations 
or municipalities, many of them receive State appropriations 
on condition of their complying with certain requirements 
designed to bring about uniformity in educational standards, 
curriculum, qualification of teachers, examinations, etc. 

The development of the factory system, the substitu- 
tion in many branches of machinery for hand labor, the 
growing utilization of art in industry, and the increasing 
technical knowledge and skill required in various depart- 
ments of manufacture, created a demand for workmen with 
more thorough training and expert knowledge than could 
be acquired merely by learning the trade in the old-fashioned 

10 



way. The necessary theoretical and technical training could 
only be given in industrial art and mechanics' schools, spe- 
cial trade schools, and engineering and technological insti- 
tutes. In order to keep in close practical touch with the 
actual industries for whose operation the young people are 
being trained, these trade schools are usually found in the 
same localities where the related industries flourish. The 
relationship between the trade school and the industry is 
thus one of reciprocity, the school adapting itself to the 
changing conditions in the industry, and the industry being 
continually revived and stimulated to further improvement 
by the regular accession to its ranks, of workmen trained 
in the school with its advancing standard of technique and 
art, and its facilities for scientific investigation and experi- 
mental work not possible in the ordinary business plant or 
factory. Furthermore, as many of these trade schools, in 
addition to the theoretical, technical and artistic training, 
offer to the students workshop practice either in the school 
plant itself or in the appropriate mill or factory, the advan- 
tage of the proximity of the latter to the school is apparent. 

Where the particular trade school is related to a factory 
industry, the manufacturers concerned as well as the indus- 
trial associations of which they are members, have in many 
cases been the organizers or promoters of such a school. 
Whether or not they or their predecessors have participated 
in the formation of the school, they are keenly interested 
in the curriculum and administration of the school, and are 
usually well represented on its board of directors or super- 
visors. This representation in the control or management 
of the school by the leaders in the industry for whose 
advancement it was established, naturally tends to keep the 
educational work of the institution adjusted to meet the 
progressive requirements of the trade. Where, however, 
the trade school is not related to mines, mills or manufac- 
turing establishments, but to industrial operations conducted 
by independent artisans or mechanics such as masons, car- 

II 



penters, cabinetmakers, plumbers, locksmiths, shoemakers, 
decorators, bookbinders, etc. ; then the guild, consisting of 
the master workmen in the particular trade, will be found 
either in control of the institution or possessing certain sup- 
ervisory or advisory powers in determining its curriculum, 
hours of instruction, entrance and graduate requirements, 
etc. 

In nearly every German city will be found organized 
evening and Sunday classes for artisans in the various 
trades practiced in the community. The trades most 
closely related to each other are grouped together in particu- 
lar classes, for which technical and artistic instruction 
appropriate to the respective trades is provided. The school 
composed of these various evening trade classes is usually 
called a ^'mechanics' school" (Handwerkerschule), which in 
many cities is consolidated with the local industrial art 
school (Kunstgewerbeschule). While the mechanics' and 
industrial art schools in a Prussian city are generally admin- 
istered by the local school authorities, the State exercises 
certain rights of inspection and control as a consequence of 
its financial aid. The local chamber of commerce or other 
official body representing the manufacturers, and the trade 
guilds representing the master-workmen, usually have the 
privilege of inspecting the departments in which they are 
especially interested, and due consideration is given by the 
school authorities to their suggestions as to courses and time 
of instruction, entrance requirements, workshop practice, 
etc. In Prussia all the trade schools receiving State aid, 
including the continuation schools, special trade schools, and 
the mechanics' and industrial art schools, are under the 
supervisory control of the Minister of Commerce and Indus- 
try, in whose hands it was considered that the schools could 
best be adapted to the local and national needs of commerce 
and industry. The more local administrative work of the 
State is divided among the various Prussian district presi- 
dents (Regierungs-Praesidenten), under whom are indus- 

12 



trial school counsellors (Gewerbeschulraete) who act as 
supervisors of the trade schools in the particular govern- 
ment district. 

In Prussia nearly all the textile schools are local insti- 
tutions, but receive State aid contingent upon compliance 
with the requirements of the national authorities. Such a 
school is directly managed by a body called a Kuratorium, 
composed of representatives of the local textile industry and 
government officials. In technical management the Prus- 
sian textile schools are subject to the Central Technical 
Bureau for the Textile Industry. The engineering and 
technological schools of Prussia are also under State super- 
vision and receive appropriations from the State or city, or 
from both. The industrial continuation schools in most 
German cities and towns form part of the public school 
system, and as such are supported by the respective munici- 
palities, usually receiving aid from the State, and some- 
times from the manufacturers and trade guilds especially 
interested. The appropriations of the German state govern- 
ments to the industrial continuation schools vary from one- 
third to two-thirds of the expenditures, not including the 
cost of rooms, heating, lighting and janitor service, which 
is met by the local community. In Prussia the proportion 
contributed by the State depends largely upon the size and 
financial condition of the community, — to the larger cities 
with more than 60,000 population not more than one-third, 
and to the smaller cities from one-half to two-thirds, of the 
total outlay exclusive of the buildings and their operating 
expenses. The total expenditures in Prussia for the indus- 
trial continuation schools amounted in 191 1 to $2,304,792, 
of which fifty-two per cent, was borne by the municipalities, 
thirty-five per cent, by the State, two per cent, by associa- 
tions and guilds, and eleven per cent by employers' contribu- 
tions consisting of the tuition fees which they are bound to 
pay for their employes, together with the sum which some 
of them donate voluntarily. 

13 



PART 11. GENERAL TRADE SCHOOLS. 



' A. Industrial Continuation Schools. 

Aim and Character. 

The continuation schools complete the common school 
education in Germany by giving the youths who are obliged 
to start at once upon the task of earning a living, the rudi- 
ments of a practical education which will be useful to them 
not only as citizens but in the active pursuit of their 
respective vocations. The course in the common schools 
(Volksschulen) of Prussia covers eight years, upon the 
completion of which the compulsory period of full-time 
schooling ends. As a rule, however, compulsory education 
does not then entirely cease, for in most cities and towns 
German boys are required to attend the continuation school 
for six or seven hours per week during three years, that is, 
usually between the ages of 14 and 17. The boys who have 
entered as store or office employes upon a business career, 
attend the commercial continuation school (kaufmaennische 
Fortbildungsschule) ; those who have taken up an industrial 
vocation, as trade apprentices, factory workers or other- 
wise, attend the industrial continuation school (gewerbliche 
Fortbildungsschule ) . 

The aim of the industrial continuation school is to fur- 
nish the young apprentice or factory worker with such 
technical and business instruction as he cannot get in the 
shop or factory where employed, but which he needs in 
order to ply his vocation intelligently and advance his eco- 
nomical wellbeing. Another important object of the con- 
tinuation school is to give the youth such instruction in 
language, science of government, civic and industrial affairs, 
trade practices, hygiene, factory sanitation, etc., as will fit 
him to be an intelligent citizen as well as an efficient master- 
workman or competent employer. 

14 



The tuition of the students in the continuation schools 
is paid by their employers, but it is merely nominal, amount- 
ing to but one or two dollars per year. The main financial 
burden is borne by the municipality aided by State appropri- 
ations, if the local authorities have complied with the 
requirements established by the State for such institutions. 

Vocational Studies. 

For the industrially employed youths who neither have 
the time nor the money to attend a special trade school, the 
continuation school constitutes an exceedingly valuable and 
important means of obtaining the knowledge which is 
needed in order that they may advance in their trade or 
better their economical position in the community. The 
instruction offered by the continuation school is especially 
valuable to apprentices in view of the thoroughness and 
growing importance of the examinations for journeymen's 
and masters' certificates. Naturally, the industrial contin- 
uation school can reach its full development only in the 
large cities, where a special organization in ascending 
single-trade classes is possible. However, in the smaller 
cities and towns good results are also being accomplished 
when, as is now almost everywhere the case, related trades 
(for example, the apprentices of the various building trades) 
are grouped together in classes. 

In selecting the subjects of instruction the aim is to 
serve the civic, vocational and economic interests of the 
apprentices and cultivate in them the technical knowledge, 
artistic sense and idealism that with the necessary mechan- 
ical skill and practical experience go to make the master- 
craftsman. The vocational studies (Fachkunde) are 
designed to broaden as much as possible the apprentice's 
knowledge of his trade and to educate him for efficient and 
conscientious pursuit thereof. For classes which embrace 
single trades or groups of trades, this expert or technical 
instruction includes elementary geometry, professional 

IS 



trade drawing, machine drawing, and the sketching of 
designs from prepared drawing cards; and also, if the 
expert teachers and other facilities are available, the han- 
dling of raw materials, tools, machines and working models. 
For practical manual instruction, however, especially that 
relating to the particular trade, one must look, as a general 
rule, to the more advanced or specialized institutions such 
as the industrial art schools, mechanics' evening schools, and 
the special trade schools. In some large industrial contin- 
uation schools algebra, physics, chemistry, natural science 
and mechanics are taught in elementary form. In the great 
majority of schools, however, these advanced subjects are 
omitted, because the very limited period of instruction must 
be devoted to more necessary studies. 

Business Instruction. 

Another illustration of the practical nature of the in- 
struction in well-organized industrial continuation schools 
of German cities, is the teaching of business methods and 
affairs (Geschaeftskunde) the knowledge of which will be 
useful to an artisan or mechanic in the carrying on of his 
particular vocation whether as employer or subordinate. 
The apprentice or learner is given such instruction in indus- 
trial bookkeeping and arithmetic as can be applied to his 
trade ; he is taught the principles governing production, dis- 
tribution and consumption, the sources of supply of raw ma- 
terials, the market for the products of his trade, the compu- 
tation of cost and the fixing of prices; he learns about simple 
mercantile and credit relations, insurance, postal affairs and 
railroad traffic; he is informed as to the appropriate indus- 
trial laws and regulations, hygienic requirements of the 
workshop, the functions of chambers of commerce, guilds 
and other industrial organizations, trade customs, etc. In the 
arithmetic course a study is made of checks, drafts and 
bills of exchange; currency, weights and measures; inter- 
est, percentage, commissions, contract estimating, etc. 

i6 



General Instructions for Unskilled Workers. 

The most difficult task of the German industrial contin- 
uation schools, especially in the large cities, has been the 
planning of the instruction for the unskilled workers, 
namely, those not apprenticed to or learning any particular 
trade, but performing unskilled or automatic labor as bar- 
row men, drivers, deliverymen, helpers or machine operat- 
ives in the various industries. 

In the selection of studies for this class of boys the 
chief aim of the well-organized German continuation 
schools such as those of the large cities, is to enable them 
to learn the principles governing their industrial environ- 
ment and the means by which they may advance themselves 
economically, and, at the same time, to broaden their gen- 
eral education. Appropriate connecting ideas are the en- 
trance of the boy into industrial life, his position in the 
working community, the activities of factory, workshop and 
general traffic, and the system of work and co-operative 
service. The care of the health and the proper use of spare 
time are taught. Besides the instruction in language, re- 
ligion, civics and other subjects which apply to all classes 
of workers, they are taught simple courses in domestic and 
industrial bookkeeping and other business studies suited to 
their position in life. The written work and arithmetic are 
closely connected wdth vocational and civic affairs, and the 
endeavor is to fix the instruction by practice and applica- 
tion. The aim is so to handle the instruction that it applies 
most appropriately to the student's occupation and place 
in the industrial organization. When practicable this is ac- 
complished by examples from actual life rather than by 
theoretical discussions. Proper consideration is of course 
given to the practical experience and intellectual ripeness of 
the students. Naturally, the plan of instruction covers a 
wide range, as the intellects of unskilled workers show such 
extraordinary variation. In this connection one of the most 

17 



difficult tasks is the organization of these workers in classes 
in accordance with their widely-differing capacities. Where 
they are mostly employed as helpers or operatives in a 
town's principal industry, like the manufacture of textiles 
or small metal goods, the instruction is arranged accord- 
ingly. It is said that in localities where the boys seldom 
change their occupation, it is easier to organize the classes 
according to the kind of business. 

Cultivation of Citizenship. 

The making of competent workmen is by no means the 
exclusive aim of the German industrial continuation schools. 
The cultivation of intelligent citizenship, patriotism and the 
co-operative spirit among the workers, is considered quite 
as essential in the promotion of national efficiency as man- 
ual skill and technical knowledge. The ideal sought to be 
attained by the system is the enlightened citizen who is 
capable of performing efficiently his social and civic obliga- 
tions as well as the tasks of his vocation, and who "not only 
seeks to advance his own welfare through his work, but 
also consciously places his labor in the service of the com- 
munity." As means to this end there has been introduced 
in the industrial continuation schools of many German cit- 
ies, a course of instruction in civic affairs (Buergerkunde), 
including studies designed to teach the connection of the 
individual calling with the common life in the family, 
school and workshop, in the community. State and Empire ; 
to explain the genesis and system of important public insti- 
tutions ; to cultivate reverence for the Constitution and pub- 
lic laws, loyalty to the home and Fatherland ; and to induce 
earnest and patriotic co-operation in the affairs of the com- 
munity and nation. For example, the students are in- 
structed as to the local municipality and its various depart- 
ments; public hygiene and sanitation; system of taxation; 
laws for the protection and insurance of workers ; the opera- 

i8 



tion of courts of justice; the functions of the chief pubhc 
authorities; important facts about the organization and ad- 
ministration of the State and Empire, the Army, the Navy 
and the Colonies. 

Physical Training and Recreation Facilities. 
Other praiseworthy features of the German continua- 
tion schools, designed to promote national efficiency, are the 
physical training and recreation facilities (Jugendpflege). 
In the well-organized schools the obligatory studies in this 
division embrace elementary physiology and personal hy- 
giene (such as care of the body, bathing, clothing, food, 
temperance, etc.), and the rendering of first aid to the in- 
jured. For the voluntary participation or use of the stu- 
dents, many continuation schools, especially in the larger 
cities of Germany, provide gymnasiums, swimming pools, 
playgrounds and other athletic facilities; and regular in- 
struction is given in gymnastics, swimming and field sports. 
While prizes are frequently offered and other measures 
taken to induce the students to participate in the gymnastic 
exercises, outdoor sports and games, and in the walking 
tours arranged by the teachers, the use of compulsion is 
discountenanced upon the principle that force leads to op- 
position, and that those who unwillingly take part in athlet- 
ics would receive little or no benefit therefrom. In addition 
to these facilities for voluntary physical training, the con- 
tinuation schools frequently provide for the optional partic- 
ipation or attendance of the students, other forms of educa- 
tion, culture and entertainment such as lectures, concerts, 
dramatic performances, singing classes, reading and game 
rooms, and excursions for visiting museums, factories and 
other places of historic or industrial interest. These ex- 
cursions, which are conducted by the appropriate teachers, 
are exceedingly interesting and valuable to the students in 
the concrete examples of civic and technical instruction thus 
afforded. 

19 



Attendance and Time of Instruction. 

The continuation schools being part of the public school 
system in each community, the question of compulsory or 
optional attendance has heretofore been determined by the 
respective municipalities. The Prussian State government, 
however, by conditioning its annual appropriations upon the 
establishment of compulsory attendance, has succeeded in 
inducing most of the communities to adopt this rule. In 
191 o Prussia had 1818 industrial continuation schools 
(gewerbliche Fortbildungsschulen), with 321,226 students; 
59 association schools (Vereinsschulen), with 5831 stu- 
dents; and 285 guild schools (Innungsschulen), with 11,952 
students. Of the industrial continuation schools, 1749 (in- 
cluding 61 workschools) had compulsory attendance, and 
69, optional attendance. The unskilled workers in the in- 
dustrial continuation schools numbered, in 19 10, 66,599; 
the remainder were trade or factory apprentices, as distin- 
guished from mere operatives in factories or helpers in other 
industrial operations. In the 59 association schools, which 
are maintained by apprentices, mechanics, manufacturers, 
etc., the attendance is optional. 

After agitation for a number of years, a draft of a 
national law has recently been submitted to the Prussian 
Landtag or legislature, which makes three years' attendance 
at an industrial or commercial continuation school oblig- 
atory on the part of all boys under 18 years of age who 
are employed in industrial or commercial work in the par- 
ticular community. The boys usually finish in the com- 
mon schools at the age of 14 or 15, and, according to 
the new State law, their compulsory attendance at the con- 
tinuation school will continue for three years or until the 
end of their apprenticeship, but not beyond the i8th year. 
It is also provided in this new law that one can be released 
by the school authorities from the obligation to attend the 
public industrial continuation school by attendance during 

20 



the required legal period and for an equal number of hours 
at a guild or other continuation school or trade school, 
provided that the instruction at such school has been recog- 
nized by the President of the respective Government Dis- 
trict (Regierungs-Praesident) as an adequate substitute. 

As a rule, the annual period of instruction amounts to 
at least 240 hours, which generally extend over 40 weeks. 
The number of hours' instruction in the week averages 
about 6. This number, however, has been found insuffi- 
cient for those trades which require extensive drawing or 
practical expert instruction. A reduction to 4 hours per 
week is allowable for such classes which receive supple- 
mentary expert instruction for at least 2 hours per week 
at a guild or association school recognized by the State. 
For those who follow the season trades such as masons, 
carpenters, painters, etc., the period of instruction can be 
diminished during the principal work season if it be corre- 
spondingly increased in the slack season; provided, how- 
ever, that all the apprentices can be compelled to attend the 
equivalent instruction and that the proper teachers for im- 
parting the same are available. The vacation in the contin- 
uation schools is regulated by industrial requirements and 
the practice in the common schools of the locality. 

Originally the instruction in the continuation schools 
was largely confined to weekday evenings and Sunday morn- 
ing hours. The school authorities, however, now recognize 
that the fatigue of the students after a day or week of 
toil in the places of employment, and the listlessness and 
natural feeling of repulsion toward studies which rob them 
of well-earned rest and recreation, impair seriously the 
value of evening and Sunday instruction. Therefore, the 
tendency is now to abolish Sunday hours and evening hours 
of instruction after 8 o'clock ; and employers are compelled 
by law to permit the boys to be absent from the business, 
without reduction or docking of pay, during those hours of 

21 



instruction which may fall in the regular working period 
of the respective store, shop, mill or factory. For example, 
in the industrial continuation schools of Prussia during 
191 1, 78 per cent, of the instruction was given weekdays 
between 7 A. M. and 8 P. M. ; 12 per cent, weekdays after 
8 P. M. ; and 10 per cent., Sunday mornings. 

Training of Teachers. 
In establishing the industrial continuation schools in 
Germany much difficulty was experienced in getting prop- 
erly trained teachers. It frequently happened that teachers 
from the common schools with the required pedagogical 
ability did not have the necessary technical or expert train- 
ing in industrial branches like mechanical drawing and ap- 
plied mathematics. On the other hand, the artisans, me- 
chanics, engineers, architects, etc., selected to give the expert 
or practical instruction, often did not possess any knowledge 
of the proper methods of teaching. 

To overcome these difficulties, special courses (Ausbil- 
dungskurse) of some weeks' duration for the training of 
teachers have been organized. The principal studies taught 
are drawing, industrial art, bookkeeping and practical math- 
ematics. Many of the teachers in order to prepare them- 
selves thoroughly for the theoretical or technical instruction 
of apprentices in the continuation school, have spent a few 
weeks or months in practical study or work in the particular 
industry represented in the class they expected to teach. 
Thus, the teacher of the shoemaker class in the Erfurt in- 
dustrial continuation school, while not a shoemaker him- 
self, has made such a special study of the theory and art of 
shoemaking and has kept in such close touch with the prac- 
tical side of the trade, that he is peculiarly equipped to give 
to the members of his class that kind of instruction in draw- 
ing and other technical subjects that will be of practical 
use to them in the pursuit of their vocation. Furthermore, 

22 



it is sometimes required that the teacher of drawing or 
other technical course spend a year or more at an industrial 
art school or in the appropriate special trade school, in order 
to gain the necessary practical knowledge of the course he 
is to teach. On the other hand, the expert craftsman who 
is to give the shop or practical instruction, in addition to 
a number of years' experience in the industry itself, may be 
required to have a diploma from a trade school, and perhaps 
some little training in pedagogy. 

B. Industrial Art and Mechanics' Schools. 

Industrial Art Schools 

The industrial art school (Kuntsgewerbe-Schule) — in 
many cities combined with a school for mechanics — repre- 
sents the most recently developed phase of industrial school- 
ing in Germany. It is virtually a municipal higher trade 
school, generally under State supervision, for the profes- 
sional and artistic education of master-workmen, foremen, 
managers of technical and art departments of industries, 
pattern makers, designers, draughtsmen and modelers for 
the different branches of industrial art and for the fine or 
highly-skilled trades. The studies are arranged in recogni- 
tion of the particular needs of furniture designers, cabinet- 
makers, woodcarvers, carpenters, plumbers, locksmiths, 
architectural draughtsmen, sculptors, jewelers, chasers, 
painters on glass and china, sign-painters, lithographers, 
bookbinders, printers, leather-workers, upholsterers, paper- 
hangers, interior decorators, textile handworkers, etc. The 
day or full courses at an industrial art school are intended 
for the learners and craftsmen of the art trades who can 
afford to devote one or two years to drawing, technical 
studies and workshop practice in the appropriate department 
of the school. Here the aspiring artisan or mechanic can 
study the scientific principles and art rules of the industry 

23 



which he has entered and cultivate ideas of grace and beauty 
which can be combined with utiHty, so that his work may 
be scientifically planned, expertly designed, economically 
and skillfully executed, and artistically as well as mechan- 
ically adapted to the utilitarian purpose intended. This in- 
struction in technics and applied art, provided for the crafts- 
men in practically every German city of industrial import- 
ance, has exercised great influence not only in increasing the 
efficiency of the skilled workers, but in stimulating their 
inventive faculties. This is demonstrated by the lavish dis- 
play of countless beautiful conceptions of industrial art in 
store windows everywhere in Germany; and thousands of 
wholesale buyers from other parts of Europe and America 
come here every year to lay in a stock of artistic wares and 
latest holiday goods of German manufacture. 



Mechanics* Evening Schools 

The evening and Sunday schools for mechanics occupy 
an important position in the German industrial school sys- 
tem. In every community there are men of narrow means 
who cannot afford to leave their work during the daytime 
or spend several years in a special trade school, industrial 
art school, or school of technology. Those who have a nat- 
ural aptitude for the vocation which they have undertaken, 
require only limited instruction in the science, art and tech- 
nics of the particular trade in order to develop into master- 
craftsmen and fit themselves for the duties of foremen and 
other positions of direction and responsibility in industrial 
undertakings. Thus, in order to enable artisans and me- 
chanics employed during the day to improve themselves in 
their respective trades, nearly every German city has organ- 
ized, in connection with the industrial art school, trade 
classes for attendance weekday evenings and Sunday morn- 
ings. These trade classes constitute the mechanics' school, 
the object of which is to provide practical courses for skilled 

24 



workers who require advanced technical instruction not 
given either in the industrial continuation school (which 
they attended during their apprenticeship) or in the indus- 
tries where they are employed. 

In addition to the organization by the municipalities, 
trade guilds or industrial associations, of such mechanics' 
schools, the Prussian Administration of Commerce and In- 
dustry has succeeded in making the expensive equipment 
of the special trade schools serviceable to a wider circle of 
workers by establishing evening courses for the voluntary 
attendance of aspiring mechanics working at the particular 
trade taught in the school. Such special courses (Sonder- 
kurse) have been arranged for machinists in the higher 
School for Machinists and Shipbuilders in Kiel, in the com- 
bined School for Machinists in Cologne, and in the trade 
schools at Remscheid and Siegen; for gunsmiths, in the in- 
dustrial continuation school at Suhl ; for tin workers, in Sie- 
gen; and for plumbers, in Gleiwitz. Special courses have 
also been arranged for locomotive engineers in Dortmund, 
Altona, Posen, Elberfeld-Barmen, Magdeburg, Stettin and 
Schneidemuehl. 

In arranging the programme of instruction in the in- 
dustrial art and mechanics' schools the tendency is now 
especially to enlarge and cultivate the trade classes which 
are more closely related to the distinctive industries of the 
particular locality, even though it may result in stinting the 
other trade classes. This tendency is especially noticeable 
in connection with the school workshops (Lehrwerkstaette), 
where specialization in certain branches of mechanics and 
industrial art is on the increase. For example, the Mechan- 
ics and Industrial Art School in Barmen pays particular 
attention to cabinetmaking and the lithographic industries; 
such school in Elberfeld, to metal-working and bookbind- 
ing ; the one in Dusseldorf , to the building trades and land- 
scape-gardening ; in Erfurt, to shoemaking, printing, lithog- 
raphy, bookbinding and cabinetmaking. 

25 



Admission and Courses of Instruction. 

In many German cities the industrial art school and 
the mechanics' school are combined in one institution, and 
the courses are frequently conducted in the same rooms and 
by the same instructors, so as to avoid duplication in facili- 
ties and equipment. The evening courses are very valuable 
in that they afford many a thrifty mechanic the opportunity 
to acquire at slight expense such a technical or theoretical 
training in his particular line of work, as will considerably 
enlarge his vocational knowledge and lead to his advance- 
ment in the particular industry with a substantial increase 
in his earning capacity. 

While both the industrial art school and the mechanics' . 
school provide instruction in drawing, mathematics, model- 
ing, and shop practice in the handling of tools and materials, 
the practical work is not intended as a substitute for actual 
apprenticeship in a trade. The object of the school work 
is rather to make up for the deficiencies of such apprentice- 
ship in theoretical, technical and art culture; to acquaint the 
students with the latest discoveries and inventions in their 
respective trades, and to keep them fresh and up to date in 
all their methods. As a matter of fact, admission to full 
courses in most of the industrial art and mechanics' schools 
of Germany is dependent upon previous practical employ- 
ment in the industry in which the student desires to perfect 
himself. The required length of experience varies from a 
few months to several years, according to the difficulty of 
the trade and the grade and character of work offered in the 
school. For full or day students the entrance requirements 
are more strict than for the evening and casual students. 

The Prussian Minister of Commerce and Industry 
issued a decree in 19 12 recommending that in future the 
industrial art and mechanics' schools, excepting those which 
have already adopted identical or more far-reaching require- 



26 



merits, should as a rule admit as full students only such 
young people who have had as a foundation at least two 
years' practice in the particular industry. The admission 
as full students of those who are unable to show compliance 
with this requirement, is to be dependent upon the decision 
of the Director of the school with the approval of the Board 
of Trustees, or upon the permission of the latter body 
alone. This governmental decree refers only to the students 
taking a full course in one of the artistic crafts, that is, those 
who devote themselves exclusively for several years to an 
industrial art and technical course. It does not concern the 
evening and occasional hour students, namely, those who 
are employed at their respective trades during the day and 
attend one of the classes for a few hours a week. 

The above decree will make no change, however, in 
the requirements of admission to the majority of the indus- 
trial art schools in Prussia, because the completion of an 
actual apprenticeship has already been established by many 
of these schools as a condition precedent to entering as a 
full course student. In some of the municipal industrial art 
schools not two years, but an average of three years previ- 
ous actual employment at the trade is required, upon the 
principle that the more practical experience a student has 
had in the trade, the better prospect of success and subse- 
quent progress is offered by attendance at such a school. 
The strict carrying out of this requirement, however, would 
by its very rigor have led to the injury of many branches 
of industry and driven large numbers of talented boys with 
a good common school education into the arms of the seduc- 
tively advertised, but usually expensive and unsatisfactory 
private trade schools, to whose proprietors the opportunity 
for profit is naturally a much more important consideration 
than the individual interests of the students. Consequently, 
in many industrial art schools quite a number of exceptions 
are made to the general rule. Thus, the Mechanics and In- 

27 



dustrial Art School at Erfurt allows exceptions in the fol- 
lowing cases, viz. : 

(i) Those in the freehand drawing crafts for adver- 
tisement and illustration work, book ornamenting, embroi- 
dery, etc. ; 

(2) The artisans of trades whose work is practically 
suspended in winter, which slack time can be utilized by 
school work ; 

(3) Apprentices who under their contracts of employ- 
ment are required to work for the master only in summer, 
and are permitted in winter to pursue a special school train- 
ing; 

(4) Young people who after graduation from the 
common school are delayed in entering a suitable appren- 
ticeship and wish to utilize the waiting time in a trade 
preparatory course; 

(5) Learners of art handicraft whose state of health 
prevents them from giving all or part of their time to actual 
apprenticeship or factory work, and hence for their voca- 
tional education are dependent upon the industrial art 
school ; and 

(6) Pre-apprenticeship students or those who require 
certain technical and art instruction to prepare them for 
entrance into the particular trade or industry as efficient 
beginners. 

To the above classes of exceptions to the general rule 
requiring previous practical employment at the trade as a 
condition precedent to entering an industrial art school, 
should be added the professional teachers who desire to get 
the necessary training to equip them to give instruction in 
drawing, etc., as well as the ladies who wish to develop their 
talents for household decoration and artistic handwork. 

28 



PART III. SPECIAL TRx\DE SCHOOLS. 



Trade Schools as a Substitute for Apprenticeship. 

Special schools exist in Germany for almost every 
trade known to the industrial world, and they have in no 
small degree aided in the thorough equipment of German 
workmen for their respective trades, to which is so largely 
due the marvelous development of the country's industries, 
and the consequent rapid spread of material prosperity and 
wellbeing in spite of the heavy burden of state and local 
taxation. It should be borne in mind, however, that the 
Germans do not believe in the plan of teaching trades 
wholly in the schools except when the conditions in a par- 
ticular industry are such that the necessary training of the 
learners cannot be provided. This is peculiarly the case 
in the textile industry, where the necessity for special tech- 
nical knowledge and the acquisition of high skill in hand 
work, as well as in the operation of the complicated ma- 
chinery of the trades, led to the establishment of special 
schools for spinning, weaving, knitting, rope making, dye- 
ing, finishing, ribbon and lace making, embroidering, etc. 
Even in many of these schools a requirement for admission 
is previous practical employment in a textile factory. Other 
important institutions which substitute school for appren- 
ticeship training, in whole or in part, are the special schools 
for the metal trades (gewerbliche Fachschulen fuer Metall- 
Industrie) in the Prussian cities of Schmalkalden, Siegen, 
Iserlohn and Remscheid; the School for Coppersmiths at 
Hanover; the Tanning School at Freiberg, Saxony; the 
School for Clock and Watch Making at Furtwangen in 
Baden; the schools for basket making at Lichtenfels in Ba- 
varia and Heinsberg in Prussia ; the schools for straw plait- 
ing in the Odenwald and Black Forest, and in Saxony; 
and the schools for pottery and for woodworkers in various 

29 



parts of Germany. Among the minor trade schools, most 
of which are maintained by trade guilds, manufacturers and 
industrial associations, are found schools for bookbinders, 
printers, decorators, dyers, shoemakers, hatters, tin work- 
ers, plumbers, locksmiths, blacksmiths, gardeners, brewers, 
bakers, millers, butchers, tailors, barbers, etc. 

Besides the incompleteness of the practical training 
which the learners in many trades would receive if depend- 
ent upon the trade schools, there are certain economical 
disadvantages in the general substitution of special trade 
schools (gewerbliche Fachschulen) for apprenticeship, such 
as the tremendous expense to the State of providing ade- 
quately equipped workshops (estimated in Prussia at $ioo 
to $125 per year for each student), the corresponding cost 
to the parents of supporting the boys during the period of 
instruction now to a large extent borne by the employers 
to whom they are apprenticed, and the enormous loss to 
industry that would result from the absence of apprentice- 
ship labor. 

Courses of Instruction. 

The regulations governing admission to the industrial 
art schools and mechanics' evening schools, have no appli- 
cation to the special trade schools, which fix their own en- 
trance requirements according to the standard of the school 
and the conditions in the respective industry. If it be a 
trade preparatory school, or a trade school aiming to take 
the place of apprenticeship in whole or in part, then the 
only condition precedent to entrance is in most cases com- 
pletion of the eight years' course in the common schools 
(Volksschulen). If, however, it be an advanced trade 
school designed not to replace but to supplement the learning 
of the trade under the apprenticeship system, then admis- 
sion may be confined to those who have already had one 
or two years' practical experience in the particular industry, 

30 



or even to those who have passed through the period of 
apprenticeship and become journeymen. While attendance 
at an industrial art school, school for mechanics, or ele- 
mentary trade school, will in some German States relieve 
one of the obligation to attend the industrial continuation 
school (gewerbliche Fortbildungs-Schule) for the corre- 
sponding period, the special trade schools, as a general rule, 
can be entered only after completion of the continuation 
school course or of equivalent instruction, in order to in- 
sure proper maturity of mind in the learning of a difficult 
trade. 

The curriculum of the typical German special trade 
school for the highly skilled crafts may be divided into 
three general parts: first, the theoretical or technical ifi^ 
struction; second, the business teaching; and third, the prac- 
tical manual training. In the theoretical or technical course 
the most important studies are drawing, mathematics and 
industrial art. In tfie latter course the most time and at- 
tention is devoted to drawing, not only on account of its 
practical application to the trade being taught, but because 
it trains the mind and eye, cultivates the sense of proportion 
and mechanical correctness, and develops a taste for the 
harmonious and artistic. The course in arithmetic is chiefly 
devoted to technical calculations which are incidental to 
the special trade taught in the school; and in geometry, to 
the practical application of geometrical relations. The pur- 
pose of the business teaching is to prepare the student for 
the practical conduct of the business of his trade. Hence, 
he is taught the principles of production and consumption; 
computation of cost and fixing of prices; the sources of 
raw materials used in, and the market for the products of, 
his industry; the method of bookkeeping most suitable to 
his trade ; and the important laws and regulations governing 
the conduct of the particular trade or industry. The prac- 
tical manual training is in the form of shop practice in the 

31 



school itself to the extent that it is equipped with the neces- 
sary tools and machines, or in the associated factories or 
workshops of the locality. Where the manual work is done 
in the school, the instruction is generally given by a master- 
workman who may be regularly engaged in the industry 
itself, or who at least has kept in touch with the modern 
conduct of the trade and the latest improvements in tools, 
machinery and industrial processes. Thus, by affording to 
factory artisans and the journeymen of the trades the op- 
portunity of learning the use of the best machines and appli- 
ances, the most time-saving methods, the highest type of 
manipulative skill and the most efficient and economical 
industrial processes,— there is a constant tendency to evolve 
new ideas and inventions, improve the work and cheapen 
the cost of production. Without the special trade schools 
many apprentices would have made no progress beyond the 
industrial training possible in an antiquated factory with 
out-of-date machinery or old-fashioned methods. As it is, 
the German craftsmen with their specialized trade school 
education have had much to do with the development of 
the splendidly equipped modern factories and other indus- 
trial establishments, by means of which Germany in recent 
years has become one of the leading exporting nations of 
the world. 

Schools for Builders and Wood Workers 

The schools for builders (Baugewerkschulen or Bau- 
schulen) for the instruction of architects, masons and car- 
penters, were among the earliest special trade schools to 
develop in Germany. They were first organized merely as 
departments of drawing schools, industrial art and contin- 
uation schools ; but during the past few decades the building 
trades have become so complicated in response to the de- 
mands of modern civic, social and industrial life that it 



32 



became necessary to erect separate buildings and establish 
more elaborate curriculums for the instruction of the stu- 
dents. Aside from the constant progress in technical knowl- 
edge in the building trades and the problems that arise from 
the installation of heating, lighting, ventilating systems, 
etc., building schools gain an additional importance in Ger- 
many by reason of the strictness of the laws governing 
the qualification of architects, master-builders and master- 
masons to ply their callings, and the intricate nature of 
the police, sanitary, fire and other regulations governing 
the location, erection and maintenance of buildings of all 
kinds. 

This purpose of the State to safeguard the community 
against incompetent architects and builders and to re- 
quire building operations to be in line with modern and 
approved ideas for the prevention or isolation of fires, the 
maintenance of health and the protection of the neighbor- 
hood against unsuitable or unsightly structures, — has nat- 
urally led to Government encouragement and support of the 
schools designed to turn out efficient builders with an expert 
knowledge of the building regulations as well as of the tech- 
nics of their trades. In 1908 the period of instruction in 
the Royal Schools for Builders in Prussia was increased 
from four to five semesters (2j^ years). In the same year 
a reform in the system of instruction was instituted, so that 
instead of following the methods of the technical high 
schools (Technische Hochschulen) as formerly, the aim is 
now to provide instruction more practical and suitable to 
the understanding of the students. Some of the builders' 
schools have departments for underground construction. 
Besides the State-subsidized schools for builders in nearly 
all of the important cities of Germany, opportunity for stud- 
ies in some branches of the builder's profession is also given 
at schools for mechanics, at schools of industrial art and at 



33 



the more important industrial continuation schools. At the 
minor institutions the main preparation for the builder's 
trade is mechanical drawing and mathematics. Of course it 
is in the special schools for builders (Baugewerkschulen) that 
the students receive the most thorough and varied training 
for architectural and constructive work, and it is chiefly to 
these excellent institutions that Germany owes the host of 
highly trained structural engineers and master-workmen 
w^ho have built the railroads, bridges, water works, drainage 
systems, industrial plants and other utility works, as well as 
the substantial, convenient and dignified public and private 
buildings which ornament the cities of modern Germany. 

By reason of the extensive timbered areas of Germany 
such as the Odenwald, Thuringian and Black Forests, with 
their varieties of excellent hard and soft woods, one of the 
most important and prosperous national industries has natu- 
rally been that of woodworking, including the manufacture 
of building materials, clocks, canes, toys, woodenware and 
furniture, cabinetmaking, etc. The craftsmen in wood such 
as carpenters, turners, joiners, cabinetmakers, woodcarvers, 
etc., prior to 1859 ^^^ to be satisfied with such theoretical 
and technical instruction as could be furnished by the in- 
dustrial continuation schools, the industrial art schools, and 
the schools for builders. In that year, however, was estab- 
lished the first German school for wood workers at Berch- 
tesgaden in Bavaria. Similar schools, principally to meet 
the needs of the industries of cabinetmaking, turning and 
carving, were subsequently established at Oberammergau, 
Fuerth, Bischofsheim, Partenkirchen, Koetzting and Neu- 
hammer in Bavaria, and Furtwangen in Baden. Of the 
woodworking schools in other parts of Germany, the most 
prominent are the school for carpenters at Berlin, the school 
for turners and woodcarvers at Leipzig, and the school for 
cabinetmaking and woodcarving at Flensburg. 



34 



Textile Schools 

The textile industry is one of the greatest in Germany, 
and as its products are to a large extent disposed of in for- 
eign markets, the continued prosperity of the industry is 
dependent upon the ability of the manufacturers to hold 
their own against foreign competition. The supremacy of 
the German industry in the past has largely depended upon 
perfection of machinery and the skill and cheapness of labor. 
With the development of textile manufacturing abroad, and 
the gradual increase in wages among skilled textile workers 
at home, — the competitive power of the German industry 
is becoming more and more dependent upon the skill and 
technical training of its workers. Foreseeing the growing 
menace of foreign competition, especially in countries like 
the United States with plenty of capital and available raw 
materials, it was natural that the manufacturers and asso- 
ciations of the textile industry should foster the develop- 
ment of schools to educate and train skilled workers for the 
most difficult and artistic grades of work. This movement 
toward a more artistic and technical training of the textile 
workers has also received the moral and financial support 
of the governing authorities of the municipalities in which 
the industries flourish and also of the respective German 
States. 

The schools for hand-spinning were the original textile 
schools in Germany. These were gradually supplanted in 
the middle of the nineteenth century by the hand-weaving 
schools, most of which were later transformed into schools 
for mechanical weaving. In the latter schools the instruc- 
tion at first was chiefly confined to theoretical work in de- 
signing and patterning; but with the progress in the technics: 
of the trades, the specialization in the industry and the in- 
tense competition, the opportunities for learning the textile 
trades thoroughly in the factories gradually decreased, so- 

35 



that it became necessary generally to substitute the school 
workshop for the apprenticeship system in the weaving in- 
dustry. Therefore, most of the weaving schools are now 
equipped with machine looms, and much attention is devoted 
to the mechanical technics of the trade. 

With specialization in the textile industry has come 
specialization in the organization of textile schools, so that 
now in many schools the instruction is limited to the partic- 
ular branch of the industry which flourishes in the respective 
locality. The requirements of special technical knowledge 
and high skill in handwork, together with the difficulty in 
learning to handle the complicated machinery, were the un- 
derlying causes of such specialization of textile education 
in Germany. There are now in various parts of the Empire, 
especially in Saxony and the lower Rhine country, special 
trade schools for spinning, knitting, weaving, dyeing, finish- 
ing, rope-making, lace-, fringe- and ribbon-making, em- 
broidering, etc. 

The textile schools of Germany can also be divided into 
two general classes : the lower schools, which are intended 
to develop the skilled artisan or master-workman of the 
trade ; and the higher schools, which aim to prepare the stu- 
dents for the managerial, supervising and important tech- 
nical positions in the factories. There are higher textile 
schools for the different branches of the silk, cotton, woolen 
and linen industries, respectively, and for the making of 
lace, ribbons, trimmings, etc. The work in these institutions 
is usually divided into three parts: (i) theoretical instruc- 
tion in the drawing and lecture rooms; (2) experimental 
work in the laboratories; and (3) manual training in the 
school workshops. 

A requirement for admission to many textile schools 
is previous practical employment in the appropriate tex- 
tile factory. The annual tuition fees range from $7 to 



36 



$47 for Germans, and $47 to $250 for foreigners. In 
Saxony the textile schools also discriminate against res- 
idents of other parts of the German Empire, and some 
schools exclude foreigners entirely. Another expense to the 
students is the cost of school supplies such as books and 
drawing materials. In several machine knitting schools the 
students also pay for the yarns they use, but have the priv- 
ilege of keeping or selling their own finished products. On 
the other hand, some schools sell the products of the stu- 
dents and apply the proceeds to the purchase of raw ma- 
terials. It is said, however, that the practice of allowing 
the students to buy the raw fabric and dispose of the prod- 
ucts of their individual skill has proved successful in that 
it operates as a strong inducement to painstaking work and 
economical use of materials. 



37 



PART IV. ENGINEERING AND SCIENTIFIC 

SCHOOLS. 



Mechanical Engineering Schools 

The mechanical engineering schools (Maschinenbau- 
schulen) are divided into two classes: the higher engineer- 
ing schools, and the lower engineering schools. The former 
provide a course of instruction for those preparing to take 
positions as constructing and supervising engineers in the 
larger machine shops, educating them for the management 
of the very high class of engineering enterprises. The 
lower engineering schools, on the other hand, are more in- 
tended to train machinists for positions as foremen or super- 
intendents in the smaller machine shops, foundries and fac- 
tories. The chosen career and the capacity of the student 
will determine which class of school he will attend. Each 
class of school in its course of instruction fulfills a different 
set of requirements for the efficient conduct of foundries, 
machine shops and other mechanical undertakings ; and both 
have immeasurably contributed to the wonderful develop- 
ment of the German steel and iron industry. The Prussian 
higher engineering schools are located at Dortmund, Elber- 
feld, Kiel, Breslau, Aix la Chapelle, Hagen, Stettin, Co- 
logne, Einbeck, Posen and Altona; the lower engineering 
schools, at Dortmund, Elberfeld, Hanover, Gleiwitz, Duis- 
burg, Cologne, Goerlitz and Magdeburg. The latter are 
also designated as special schools for the metal industry, 
because plumbers, locksmiths, brass-founders and other 
metal-workers can acquire at such institutions the higher 
technics of their trades and thus prepare themselves for the 
direction or management of industrial undertakings in their 
special lines of work. Schools for metallurgy (Huetten- 
schulen) are sometimes connected with the mechanical en- 
gineering schools, especially in those localities where the 

38 



industries call for such a technical department. At some 
of these schools are organized evening classes for machin- 
ists, locksmiths, tin-workers, and other mechanics of the 
metal trades who wish to study engineering or metallurgy 
or otherwise gain the technical knowledge necessary to ad- 
vance themselves in their respective vocations. 

It is from the mechanical engineering schools (Ma- 
schinenbauschulen) and the schools of technology (Tech- 
nika), and not from the technical high schools (technische 
Hochschulen), that the German manufacturing industries 
draw the great majority of their constructing and supervis- 
ing engineers as well as factory managers and shop super- 
intendents. Among engineering and manufacturing con- 
cerns it is the preponderating opinion that the course at 
the technical high schools takes up too much time and is 
of too theoretical and scientific a nature in preparing for 
the majority of positions which have to do with the prac- 
tical management of workmen and mechanical operations 
in foundries, machine shops and similar metal industries. 

Schools of Technology 

Aim and Character. 

The Technikum or school of technology is an institu- 
tion found in many parts of Germany where a number of 
trades, usually closely related to each other, are taught to- 
gether, so as to admit of a duplication of courses, teachers 
and equipment. By this grouping together of correlated 
trades like those of electrical and mechanical engineering, 
draughting, chemistry, mining and metallurgy, architecture 
and the various trades associated with building, much econ- 
omy and good practical results have been accomplished un- 
der a common organization. Thus, for instance, the sub- 
jects of drawing, physics, chemistry and mathematics can 
be taught in the same institution to students of different 
professions and trades. The courses at a Technikum are 

39 



frequently determined by the character of the technical in- 
dustries in the same locality, and at some of these institu- 
tions arrangements are made for giving the students of 
certain trades practical experience in the appropriate fac- 
tories or workshops of the vicinity. 

Organisation and Scope. 

An idea of the organization and scope of the German 
schools of technology can be gathered from the following 
outline of the various departments of a typical higher school 
of technology, namely, the Thueringisches Technikum at 
Ilmenau in the Grand Duchy of Saxe- Weimar. This re- 
nowned institution is under the direct supervision of the 
Grand Ducal government and is divided into three depart- 
ments as follows : — 

(i) The department of mechanical and electrical engi- 
neers, which has for its object the qualification of the 
students for the practical requirements of industry as con- 
structors, mechanical superintendents, and as managing or 
directing owners of factories and other industrial establish- 
ments. Within the scope of this department is the manu- 
facture of steam engines, steam turbines, boilers, gas en- 
gines, water-power machines, machine tools, transmission 
power plants, armatures, pumps, windlasses, motor vehicles, 
iron bridges and roofs, central heating plants, special ma- 
chines for particular industries like paper mills, spinning and 
weaving mills, sugar refineries, breweries, gas works, etc.; 
also the construction of dynamos, electric cars and motors, 
electric apparatus, light and power plants. 

(2) The department for machinists and electricians, 
the aim of which is to prepare the students for intermediate 
technical positions in the construction offices, machine shops 
and factories, also as independent managers of small ma- 
chine or electrical plants, and of businesses for the installa- 
tion of light, heat and water. 

40 



(3) The department for foremen, master-machinists, 
machinery erectors and mechanical draughtsmen. The ob- 
ject of this department is the theoretical training of fore- 
men, etc., in machine construction and electrical work; of 
master-machinists for the mechanical and electrical plants in 
shops and factories of every kind ; of proprietors of machine 
shops and repair plants; and of mechanical draughtsmen, 
fine mechanics, blacksmiths, locksmiths, turners and cabinet- 
makers, who aim to improve their economical position by 
means of a better technical education. 

Facilities for Practical Work. 

The Association of German Engineers has laid down 
the following objective principles to guide the schools of 
technology in the practical training of engineering and tech- 
nical students : 

(a) Acquirement of a certain skill of hand; 

(b) Knowledge of the materials of machinery con- 
struction and the machine tools for working at same; 

(c) The mode of assembling the finished parts; 

(d) Familiarity with the duties of engine, boiler and 
machine attendants; 

(e) Understanding of the working conditions and 
methods in a well-ordered factory, also of the practical 
application of the industrial laws and regulations concerned; 

(f) Learning proper methods of intercourse with the 
workers. 

In view of the inadequacy of school workshops (Lehr- 
werkstaette) as a substitute for practical manufacturing 
experience in the training of a future engineer, shop super- 
intendent or factory manager, the Thueringisches Techni- 
kum as well as other schools of technology in Germany 
have made arrangements which enable them to offer to the 

41 



students facilities of study and practical work at suitable 
factories in the same locality. The industrial establishment 
thus available to the students at the technical school in 
Ilmenau is a local factory for the construction of machines, 
electrical apparatus and mechanical specialties. There oppor- 
tunity is afforded for the application of theory to practice; 
for the study of the factory equipment, the machine tools, 
mechanical operations and manufacturing methods ; and for 
the making of experiments, so far as they do not interfere 
with the business operations of the factory. This practical 
training includes instruction in the character and properties 
of the materials employed in machine construction; the 
manipulation of the same in foundries, blacksmiths' and 
locksmiths' shops, turning and cabinetmaking shops; and 
the function and use of the appropriate hand and machine 
tools. Therefore — in view of this opportunity to study the 
operations of an establishment of varied manufacture, the 
sequence in the processes of production, the economy of 
time, labor and material, and the intercourse with the work- 
men — it is apparent that the factory experience during the 
student period has great advantages over the narrower scope 
and less practical operations of a school workshop (Lehr- 
werkstatt) upon which technical students were formerly 
dependent. 

Technical excursions to other localities for the inspec- 
tion of appropriate manufacturing plants and instructive 
industrial operations, are arranged from time to time 
for the students, the instructor in the particular branch of 
industry under investigation acting as guide. Experience 
has shown that these technical excursions are of great value 
not only in stimulating the interest of the students in the 
practical affairs of their profession, but in fixing in their 
minds by practical demonstration the theoretical work of 
the class room. 



42 



At the higher schools of technology the tuition fees 
vary from lOO marks ($23.80) to 500 marks ($119.00) a 
year. At the lower schools of technology the tuition fees 
are considerably less. These institutions are all under State 
supervision and receive appropriations from either the State 
or city in which they are located, or from both. The exam- 
inations for graduation are regulated by Government com- 
missions, and diplomas are conferred. 

Technical High Schools 

The technical high schools (technische Hochschulen) 
represent the most advanced grade of industrial education 
in Germany. To Americans unfamiliar with the German 
nomenclature the term "Hochschule" gives a false impres- 
sion of the character of the school, as it bears no similarity 
to an American high school either in rank or curriculum. 
The German technical high school is virtually a scientific 
institution of the highest rank and can only be compared 
to the engineering and scientific departments of some of the 
great American universities. It is really more advanced 
than most, if not all, of the latter, in that the standard of 
admission is generally higher and research and experiment 
are carried on by maturer students and along more original 
and far-reaching lines. The scientific training and investi- 
gating spirit of these schools have made possible many of 
the discoveries in chemistry and electricity by which meth- 
ods of manufacture have been revolutionized, industrial 
processes cheapened, natural resources conserved, the waste 
products of iarm, mine and factory utilized in the produc- 
tion of valuable new commodities, — and the foreign trade 
of Germany thereby increased many millions of dollars 
annually. At all of these institutions are departments for 
architecture, civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, 
chemistry, and general science. At some of them are added 
certain other departments such as shipbuilding and marine 

43 



engineering at the Royal Technical High School in Danzig; 
mining and metallurgy, in Aix la Chapelle; pharmacy in 
Brunswick, Stuttgart and Darmstadt; naval architecture in 
Berlin ; forestry in Karlsruhe ; agriculture in Munich ; and a 
railway, post and telegraph course in Stuttgart. In the 
department of chemistry at the school in Brunswick there 
are special courses for the study of food stuffs, sugar and 
ferments. 

In civil and electrical engineering, chemistry and phar- 
macy, mathematics and general science, the technical high 
schools occupy an indisputable position in Germany. On 
the other hand, however, different investigators have ex- 
pressed the opinion that for mechanical engineering, min- 
ing and the building industry, the courses at a technical 
high school are too theoretical and, owing to the length of 
time away from practical work, tend to unfit the student 
for the management of workmen and the active direction 
of industrial and building undertakings. It is claimed that 
outside of the field of chemistry and of civil and electrical 
engineering, the great majority of engineering, managerial 
and technical positions in the industries are filled by grad- 
uates from the schools of mechanical engineering (Maschin- 
enbauschulen), foundry schools (Huettenschulen), mining 
schools (Bergschulen), schools of technology (Technika), 
schools for builders (Baugewerkschulen), and the more ad- 
vanced special trade schools. 



44 



PART V. AUXILIARY EDUCATIONAL 
FACILITIES. 



School Workshops 

The school workshop (Lehrwerkstatt) is of course a 
part of every special trade school. It is also connected, in 
many cities, with those classes in the industrial art school 
and mechanics' evening school which are organized for the 
better training of workmen in the distinctive local indus- 
tries. The school workshop offers practical experience in 
the pursuit of a trade, and is modelled after the shop, fac- 
tory or department of the industry for which the student 
is being trained. 

During the past decade the great majority of industrial 
art and mechanics' schools have been equipped with work- 
shops which make possible a more varied as well as more 
practical training, for prior thereto the school productions 
were mostly confined to drawings. Among the employers 
of skilled labor, the guilds and industrial associations gen- 
erally in Germany, there was much hostility at first to the 
idea of school workshops, because of the fear that the State 
intended to use them as a substitute for apprenticeship to 
master-craftsmen or to manufacturers. But this opposition 
is dying out as the employers and guilds realize that the 
object of these workshops is not to supersede but to supple- 
ment the process of learning under the apprenticeship sys- 
tem. In the industrial art school the workshop instruction 
is preparatory or supplementary to the practical experience 
of the artisan in learning or plying his trade, as the case 
may be. In the mechanics' evening school, it is comple- 
mentary to the daily tasks of the journeyman at his trade. 

School Exhibitions 

Many of the continuation schools, industrial art and 
mechanics' schools, and special trade schools, once or twice 

45 



a year hold local or provincial exhibitions ( Schulausstel- 
lungen) of the drawings, models, patterns and other work 
of the students. The main objects are to stimulate compe- 
tition among the students for the prizes, which are frequently 
offered, and to show the public, especially the manufactur- 
ers and tradesmen, what is being done in the schools which 
are so closely bound up with the industrial welfare of the 
nation. The opportunity to see the various specimens of 
work produced under the instruction of specially trained 
teachers and of leading experts direct from the trades, is 
of great value not only to the students themselves who can 
thus recognize the defects of their individual work, but to 
the journeymen and master-artisans who wish to keep 
abreast of the progress in theory, technique and art in their 
respective trades. For the distribution of prizes a fund is 
usually created by contributions of the State and munici- 
pality, and by the donations of guilds, industrial associations 
and private benefactors. In Erfurt, for instance, 133 stu- 
dents of the industrial continuation school were rewarded 
during the past year (1911) with prizes, chiefly consisting 
of technical books, working tools, cases of mathematical 
instruments, and small sums of money. 

Workmaster Courses 

The original chief purpose of the "workmaster 
courses" (Werkmeisterkurse) was to afford independent or 
master-mechanics, who during their experience as appren- 
tices and journeymen had had no opportunity for a desir- 
able technical and theoretical training, a substitute for that 
which the present day learner can get in the special trade 
schools and industrial continuation schools. In the past 
decade, however, the courses of instruction have been some- 
what altered to meet the condition that almost everywhere 
now the master-mechanics constitute only about one-third 

46 



of those attending the workmaster courses, while the re- 
mainder are journeymen — most of whom are young men 
who have received a certain amount of technical education 
in the industrial continuation schools, and the mechanics' 
schools or special trade schools, but after working at their 
trade take up such supplementary courses for the purpose 
of mastering the more difficult problems of such trade and 
to keep informed on its latest improvements and most mod- 
ern methods. In all the provinces of the Kingdom of Prus- 
sia, especially in the important industrial centers, there have 
been established, mostly by the Chambers of Trades (Hand- 
werkskammern), various workmaster courses of six to eight 
weeks' duration, which can be attended by mechanics who 
can afford to spend the time, and for which are generally 
provided both rooms and equipment for drawing and shop 
practice as well as lectures. 

Workmaster courses are regularly held in different parts 
of Prussia for such trades as cabinetmakers, joiners, lock- 
smiths, goldsmiths, silversmiths, carriage-builders, decorat- 
ors, saddlers and leather-workers, bookbinders, painters, 
paperhangers, building mechanics, watchmakers, plumbers, 
gas and water installers, glaziers, wheelwrights, shoemakers 
and tailors. The theoretical part of the workmaster course 
generally includes such studies as bookkeeping, business af- 
fairs and customs, trade practices, banking, credit, contract 
estimating and price calculation. The total number of im- 
portant workmaster courses in the year 1910-11 in Prussia 
amounted to 164, and the participants 1570, of whom 570 
were master-mechanics, and 1000, journeymen. Besides 
there were not less than 12 10 small master courses with 
technical or theoretical instruction for 28,984 artisans. Part 
of the expenses of these courses is defrayed from State 
appropriations; the balance is assumed by the students. 
Guilds and Chambers of Trades (Handwerkskammern). 



47 



Experimental Shops 

The experimental shop (Versuchsanstalt) or labora- 
tory is an important department of many of the large man- 
ufacturing establishments, as thereby facilities are provided 
for research, tests and experiments which help to solve the 
problems of the industry and eventually result in the im- 
provement of technical methods, the discovery of new pro- 
cesses, and the invention of valuable commodities, — all of 
which constitute fresh sources of national trade and wealth. 
Laboratories and experimental shops are also connected with 
the engineering and scientific schools and the more advanced 
special trade schools, and are intended to aid them in the 
practical elements of the work. In the above technical 
schools they are primarily for the application of acquired 
knowledge to concrete objects, for research, experiments 
and inquiry into the unknown. This experimental and re- 
search work as carried on in factory and technical school, 
results in numerous mechanical inventions and improve- 
ments, scientific discoveries, new methods of utilizing the 
waste of farm, factory and mine, and the placing on the 
market from time to time of new by-products and other 
articles of commerce. Of the many important German in- 
dustries developed by such experimental and laboratory 
work, those most familiar to Americans are probably the 
manufacture of drugs, chemicals, benzol, creosote, aniline 
dyes and other coal-tar products. That Germany today 
holds an unrivaled position in the manufacture and export 
of drugs and chemicals, is chiefly due to the thorough in- 
struction given and extensive practical investigations pur- 
sued in the technical high schools and the continuation of 
this study and experimenting by their chemistry and phar- 
macy graduates in the splendidly equipped laboratories of 
the German chemical factories. Thus, the experimental 
work of the scientific investigator co-operates with the en- 
terprise of the manufacturer and the technical ability of 
his workmen in the extension of Germany's industries and 
commerce. 

48 



PART VI. VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS. 

In the German common schools (Volksschulen), which 
girls as well as boys are compelled to attend until they 
reach the age of 14 or 15, the girls receive needle work 
instruction in addition to the general studies. In Germany 
prior to i860 continuation or part-time schools existed only 
for boys, because the factory system had not developed 
to the extent of employing many women, and the domestic 
duties were supposed to be learned at home. However, 
with the change in the social relations brought about by 
the employment in the industries of such a large proportion 
of women with little or no opportunity to learn household 
duties at home, movements were started in various parts 
of Germany for the establishment of industrial continuation 
schools for girls (Maedchen-Fortbildungsschulen). 

Naturally, the course of instruction in these schools was 
chiefly confined at first to domestic duties such as sewing, 
darning, mending, tailoring, cooking, baking and serving. 
Subsequently, the course in domestic science was broadened 
to include household economy and hygiene and elementary 
training in the care of children and the sick. Of more re- 
cent growth are the special trade schools (gewerbliche 
Fachschulen) for girls, in which they are wholly or partly 
trained for such occupations as milliners, dressmakers, hair- 
dressers, art embroiderers, lace-makers and other textile 
hand-workers. Of these special trade institutions the most 
important are the textile schools, because the textile indus- 
tries employ such a large number of women, who work 
alongside of the men in the making of suits, underwear, 
gloves, stockings, lace, trimmings and other textile goods. 
Departments for women were organized in some of the 
lower textile schools already existing, and in many locali- 
ties, particularly in Saxony, special trade schools were es- 
tablished for teaching girls hand lace-making and other 
branches of textile handwork. 

49 



The early domestic science and trade schools for girls 
were mostly established by philanthropic associations and 
wealthy manufacturers. Subsequently, when their value 
and effectiveness in improving the home and promoting the 
industrial welfare of the women were generally recognized, 
the municipal, district and State authorities also interested 
themselves in the movement, so that there are now in Ger- 
many a large number of schools for the training of girls 
in commercial and industrial pursuits as well as in domestic 
science. However, it is generally recognized by the German 
educational authorities that the most unsatisfactory feature 
in the organization of the girls' continuation schools has 
been the optional attendance, as the schools thereby fail to 
reach those who most need the training, and the courses 
and period of instruction have to be arranged to suit the 
wishes of the students rather than to accomplish the true 
purpose for which the schools were established. Hence 
the agitation for the new law recently passed by the Reich- 
stag or national parliament of the German Empire, requir- 
ing municipalities to extend the industrial regulations for 
compulsory continuation school attendance to include the 
female workers. 

It has generally been recognized, that the co-operation 
of the continuation schools in the vocational training of 
boys is proper and wise. Considering the activities of the 
housewife as an occupation, the leading educational author- 
ities in Germany regard the training of the girl in house- 
keeping as the principal aim of the industrial continuation 
school. In fact, a certain group of commentators go so far 
as to contend that instruction in the management of the 
home and in the raising of children is the absorbing task 
of the continuation school, and that every other pursuit 
must give way before it. These people claim that as most 
girls within a short time leave their chosen occupations to 
get married, the cost of their vocational training is in the 

50 



great majority of cases practically lost to the industries. 
Hence, they contend that the course of instruction in the 
continuation schools for girls should be restricted to prac- 
tical domestic duties together with improvement in gen- 
eral education through enlargement of the knowledge ac- 
quired in the common schools. The Royal Prussian De- 
partment of National Industry (Koenigliches Preuszische 
Landesgewerbeamt) holds a different opinion, however, as 
is evident from the following quotation from its Admin- 
istration Report for 1912 (p. 222) : 

"There remains now to consider whether the 
instruction in domestic science shall in all cases 
constitute the only educational matter of the con- 
tinuation school, which represents the view of the 
second group mentioned. Such a limitation would 
not be justified, because between the entrance into 
industrial employment and marriage lies a con- 
siderable number of years, in which it would be 
unjust to exclude the girl from the vocational in- 
struction required for the enhancement of her 
earning capacity. Moreover, not all marry ; many 
continue their vocational activity during marriage, 
or take it up again as widows or deserted wives. 
Also many girls marry men who pursue the same 
occupation as their wives. The wives can then 
make use of their acquired knowledge without 
pursuing a regular vocation. This refers espe- 
cially to commercial occupations. From the fore- 
going it follows, that the continuation school 
should offer to working girls the opportunity for 
vocational as well as household education, and the 
difficult question is how best to accomplish this. 
. . . The solution is simplest for the unskilled 
working girl. Here the domestic science training 

51 



can properly constitute by far the largest propor- 
tion of the teaching matter. Through a particular 
subject of instruction, which may perhaps be de- 
fined as science of living (Lebenskunde), can be 
established connections between occupation and 
home. In this way could be reached (in Prus- 
sia) approximately icx),ooo unskilled working 
girls from the industries and 31,000 from com- 
merce and trade. The suggestion that the un- 
skilled working girls should by instruction in the 
continuation school be trained for a skilled voca- 
tion, goes beyond the aim of a continuation school. 
For this the few hours of instruction are insuffi- 
cient. Furthermore, in such cases it would be nec- 
essary to provide extensive and expensive school 
workshops, which nevertheless cannot stand as a 
complete substitute for the actual business work- 
shops in which the skilled workers are regularly 
employed the entire day. On the other hand, it 
is practicable in such a school to train unskilled 
working girls for the occupation of a housemaid. 
For this, however, no special provisions are re- 
quired in a continuation school in which the do- 
mestic science instruction preponderates. . . . 
The training in household duties is of so great 
importance as to the health and increase of the 
German people, that it must find its place in the 
continuation school. It is also to be borne in 
mind that in classes for the exclusively female vo- 
cations — and that will be the majority — any of 
the before-mentioned subjects of the domestic 
science course can be dropped if they are incident 
to the vocation in question. For example, in 
many cases the needle work can be omitted from 
the course of instruction. If the establishment 

52 



of compulsory domestic science schools with full 
day instruction cannot be thought of at the pres- 
ent time, still the organization of such institutions 
with optional attendance is to be desired. From 
the popularity which the present schools of this 
kind enjoy, it is to be expected that the attendance 
will increase when the compulsory continuation 
schools are established and attendance at the for- 
mer (optional schools) relieves one of the obliga- 
tion subsequently to attend the latter. For this 
reason many girls upon graduation from the com- 
mon school would be deterred from immediate en- 
trance upon an industrial pursuit, which postpone- 
ment is to be welcomed in their own interest. 
Naturally, the expenses for the girl students must 
be materially reduced so far as practicable. To 
be recommended is the establishment of schools 
with half-day instruction, whereby the girls are 
enabled during the free time to be employed where 
they can earn some money or at home in the pur- 
suit of domestic duties." 

As most girls take industrial positions merely to bridge 
over the time between graduation from the common schools, 
usually at the age of 14, and marriage, their special trade 
schools (gewerbliche Fachschulen) are, as a rule, elemen- 
tary institutions in which the training is chiefly manual, — 
as distinguished from the more advanced schools, such as 
the higher textile schools, in which the instruction is less- 
manual and more theoretical and technical. As separation, 
of the sexes is a distinctive characteristic of the German; 
educational system, coeducation in the continuation and; 
special trade schools has not made very rapid progress,, 
although it is said that in schools where it has been tried! 
the presence of girls spurred the boys on to better work. 

53 



PART VII. RELATION OF SCHOOLS TO 
NATIONAL INDUSTRY. 



Development to Meet Requirements of Different Grades 

of Workers. 

A distinguishing characteristic of the German indus- 
trial schools is their development to meet various conditions 
and requirements in the industries for whose advancement 
they were established. This splendid system of industrial 
education following the general instruction of the common 
schools (Volksschulen), together with the discipline and 
thorough physical training received by the German youth in 
the Army, advantageously affects the national efficiency. 
Originally there were only two general grades: the lower 
industrial schools, such as the continuation schools, me- 
chanics' schools, and the special trade schools; and the 
higher industrial schools, such as the technical high schools 
(technische Hochschulen) for the education of chemists, 
scientists, architects, civil, electrical, mining and mechan- 
ical engineers, etc. It was found, however, that for many 
supervising positions involving the practical management 
of workmen and the superintendence of mechanical opera- 
tions, the instruction in the lower grade was inadequate, 
and in the technical high schools, too theoretical, expensive 
and time-consuming for the majority of aspirants. 

To meet this demand for a middle grade of industrial 
schools there were established the schools of technology 
(Technika), mechanical engineering schools (Maschinen- 
bauschulen), schools for builders (Baugewerkschulen), min- 
ing schools, schools of metallurgy (Huettenschulen), higher 
textile schools, navigation, shipbuilding and marine engi- 
neering schools, etc. These middle industrial schools, as a 
general rule, are equipped with workshops or have arrange- 
ments with appropriate local industries for practical work 

54 



by the students. The school workshops (Lehrwerkstaette) 
are models of the factories or machine shops for the tech- 
nical management of which the students are being taught; 
and, as they usually contain the most modern tools and ma- 
chines and are conducted along up-to-date lines by practical 
instructors direct from the trades, the students are made 
familiar with the technical and mechanical operation of 
the respective industries for which they are preparing. 

Adaptation of Schools to Local Requirements. 

Another special feature of the German general and 
special trade schools is their adaptation to the needs of 
particular localities. Thus, the general trade schools con- 
sisting of continuation schools, industrial art schools and 
mechanics' evening schools, which are mostly municipal or 
combined State and city institutions, have their classes 
organized and courses of instruction planned to meet the 
requirements of the industries which flourish in the locality 
in question. If cabinet-making, metal-working, or book 
publishing, for instance, are the principal industries of a 
certain community, then special classes will be organized 
in the industrial continuation school, industrial art school 
and mechanics* evening school, for the different wood- 
working, metal working and bookmaking trades, respec- 
tively, in which the workmen of that locality are chiefly 
employed. 

The special trade schools (gewerbliche Fachschulen) 
are located, as a general rule, in the locality or region where 
flourish the particular branches of industry in which the stu- 
dents are or will be employed. That the specialized trade 
schools are so generally local in their organization and 
government, is perfectly natural in view of the tendency of 
many industries in Germany to concentrate in certain towns 
or districts, so that the steady employment and material wel- 
fare of the inhabitants of a particular locality are often de- 

55 



pendent upon a single industry. For example, in certain 
parts of Thuringia local prosperity largely depends upon 
the making of toys and dolls ; in other places, upon the man- 
ufacture of glass, optical goods and scientific instruments; 
in other sections, upon the china and pottery industry. 

By establishing the school in proximity to the related 
industries, the institution is made conveniently accessible to 
the workers, responsive to the special requirements of the 
local manufacturers, and for instruction in the mechanical 
or manual operations of the trade can avail itself of the 
services of experts direct from the appropriate factory or 
workshop. On the other hand, the local industry is con- 
tinually being reinforced by technically trained recruits, 
thereby leading to the frequent introduction of new methods 
and processes learned through the scientific studies and ex- 
perimental work of the trade school. These reciprocal re- 
lations between the industrial schools and factories in the 
same community or district tend to keep the local industries 
in a progressive and flourishing condition, and to counteract 
the movement toward concentration of manufacturing and 
population in the big cities at the expense of the smaller 
cities and towns. 

Co-operation Between Technical Schools and Related 

Industries. 

The mechanical engineering schools (Maschinenbau- 
Schulen), metallurgical schools (Huettenschulen), mining 
schools and schools of technology are generally located in 
the center of industrial regions where machine shops, glass 
and metal foundries, mines or other related industries are 
accessible to the students for such practical experience as 
they are required to have in conjunction with the school 
work. For example, the famous Clausthal School for Min- 
ing is conveniently located in one of the greatest mining 
regions in Germany, so that students in the practical pre- 

56 



paratory course can spend their mornings in active work in 
some branch of the local mines, and their afternoons at the 
lectures designed to explain such actual work in the indus- 
try. In the regular course one day a week is devoted to 
excursions to neighboring mines and smelting works. This 
plan of dividing the time between theoretical study in the 
lecture rooms, experimental work in the laboratories, and 
practical execution in the school workshops or neighboring 
industries, — is also pursued by many of the technological 
and engineering schools. A very commendable feature of 
nearly all of these technical and special trade schools, is 
the arrangement of frequent excursions in charge of the 
appropriate instructor, for the purpose of inspecting the 
various industries related to the technical studies of the par- 
ticipating students. These technical excursions have proved 
so useful in enabling the students to understand the prac- 
tical side of their studies and to learn the conditions and 
methods of actual industrial operations, that the scheme is 
recommended to American industrial schools of the same 
kind which have not yet introduced the practice. 

Public Control and National Co-operation. 

Private industrial schools, or those organized and man- 
aged for profit, are comparatively rare in Germany. The 
industrial continuation schools, mechanics' and industrial 
art schools are, as a rule, conducted by the local authorities 
in municipal buildings, the State having certain rights of 
supervision and control where, as is usually the case in 
Prussia, it shares with the municipality the expenses of 
operation. The special trade schools are either conducted 
by the municipality or by the guilds or other industrial asso- 
ciations interested in the particular trade taught. Thus, 
the higher textile schools in Prussia are generally municipal 
institutions under the supervision and control of a body 
called a Kuratorium, composed of representative men of 

57 



the community engaged in the textile industry and local 
government officials. While schools conducted by guilds 
or other trade associations may impose certain restrictions 
as to attendance, they are considered as public institutions 
because conducted in the interest of a local industry and not 
for the sake of financial profit. These guild or association 
schools frequently receive appropriations from the local or 
State government upon condition of complying with cer- 
tain requirements for the benefit of the general public. The 
mechanical engineering schools, schools for builders, and 
schools of technology, although mostly State institutions, 
are sometimes housed in municipal buildings or receive 
other support from the communities in which they are 
located. 

Credit should be given to private initiative as repre- 
sented by trade guilds, industrial associations and philan- 
thropic manufacturers, for the establishment of many of 
the industrial schools, which originally met with; much 
opposition and had to prove their worth before receiving 
the support of the public authorities. Their subsequent 
control or financial support by the municipalities resulted 
in the extension of their facilities and made them accessible 
to a much larger proportion of the youth of the respective 
communities. Uniformity in organization, entrance re- 
quirements, curriculum and grade of work, was largely 
brought about in Prussia and other German States by the 
recommendations of the government departments of com- 
merce and industry. State aid to a particular school being 
contingent upon its efficiency and organization in accord- 
ance with the regulations promulgated by Royal authority. 

While conceding the advantages of a local administra- 
tion of industrial schools which peculiarly applied to distinc- 
tive local industries, national educators early recognized the 
necessity of more uniformity in the educational systems 
throughout the Empire, in order that the schools could more 

S8 



efficiently co-operate for the upbuilding of German com- 
merce and industry. In the effort to create analogous sys- 
tems of industrial schools the various State governments 
have received invaluable assistance from the national asso- 
ciations for the promotion of industrial education such as 
the German Association for Continuation School Affairs 
(Deutsche Verein fuer das Fortbildungsschulwesen ) , As- 
sociation of German Industrial Schoolmen (Verband deut- 
scher Gewerbeschulmaenner), and the German Associa- 
tion for Commercial Education (Deutsche Verband fuer 
das kaufmaennische Unterrichtswesen). These national 
associations have local branches in nearly all of the import- 
ant German cities, which hold frequent meetings for the 
discussion of school measures and reforms and for the 
delivery of lectures on appropriate subjects. Thus, in the 
five meetings in the fiscal year of 1911-12 of the Erfurt 
Association for Continuation School Affairs (Der Erfurter 
Verein fuer das Fortbildungsschulwesen) were delivered 
five lectures as follows : "Higher Courses for Bakers at the 
Grain-Converting Institution in Berlin"; "The Youth and 
Apprentices' Recreation Home"; "The Imperial Insurance 
Regulations"; "The Panama Canal and Its Importance"; 
"The Scheme of Organization of the Trades in Germany." 
Among the topics that will be discussed by the local asso- 
ciation during the coming winter are "Explanation in the 
Continuation School of Sexual Matters" ; "Industrial Book- 
keeping," and "The Practical Preparation of Continuation 
School Teachers." 

As a result of the unifying influences above mentioned, 
there is now systematic relation in general aims, rank, en- 
trance requirements, and courses of instruction in German 
industrial schools of the same kind. Students of schools in 
one State are, under a system of mutual accrediting, ad- 
mitted to equivalent schools in other States of the Empire. 
Another advantage is the similarity in nomenclature, which 

59 



facilitates discussion and reform in school affairs. The 
Association of German Engineers, by its recommendations 
concerning curriculums, entrance and graduate require- 
ments, etc., has exercised considerable influence in estab- 
lishing the high standards of the engineering and technolog- 
ical schools. In Prussia, the reform, extension and unity of 
the textile schools, was largely brought about through the 
efforts of an official organization, with headquarters in Ber- 
lin, styled the Central Technical Bureau for the Textile In- 
dustry. Its principal duties are to make tours of inspection, 
to formulate instruction as to curriculums, examinations, 
etc., for the textile schools of Prussia; to advise the Prussian 
Minister of Commerce and Industry on matters relating to 
textile education, and to conduct mechanical and chemical 
experiments in textile manufacture. As the prosperity of 
such a large proportion of the German people is dependent 
upon the textile industry, the value of a uniform and pro- 
gressive system of textile schools is incalculable. 

Utility of Art in Industrial Education. 

The aim of industrial education in Germany is not 
merely to teach the craftsmen to produce that which is serv- 
iceable, durable and mechanically correct, but also that 
which is artistic and in accordance with good taste. The 
existence in museums, churches and elsewhere of innumer- 
able and varied artistic products of the handicraftsmen of 
the Middle Ages before the introduction of machinery had 
largely sacrificed art to utility, and the survival to this day 
of the traditions, pride of vocation and esthetical standards 
of the medieval craftsmen and of the powerful guilds into 
which they were organized, — are naturally important factors 
in the cultivation of the public taste and in the education 
of the artisans in those trades of which the products may 
be ornamental as well as useful. In spite of the introduction 
of machinery and the factory system, there is still oppor- 

60 



tunity for artistic handwork in many of the trades such 
as cabinetmaking and other woodwork, stone- and metal- 
work, upholstery, leather-goods making, bookbinding, 
printing, pottery, painting and interior decorating, shoe- 
making and the various branches of the textile industry. 

Through the utilization of art, old industries have, from 
time to time, been revived, as well as new industries created, 
in Germany. An illustration of this is seen in the clock in- 
dustry of the Black Forest and the Tyrol, which was at one 
time threatened with destruction by the competition of 
machine-made clocks. But through the establishment of 
the schools for wood workers at Furtwangen and elsewhere 
in the forested regions of Germany, and the excellent art 
training received at these institutions, the carved woodwork 
with which the clocks are made in those regions became so 
celebrated, that the industry has been able to hold its own 
in the world's market. 

Not only the handicrafts but the factory industries have 
received invaluable aid from the technical and artistic edu- 
cation of the workers made possible by the industrial art 
schools. The progressive German manufacturers as well as 
the leading public educators, foreseeing that the export of 
low-priced ordinary goods would gradually diminish as 
other countries with sufficient natural resources and capital 
establish competing industries, have endeavored to improve 
the artistic and technical capacity of the factory workers. 
Therefore, they have encouraged the establishment of spe- 
cial courses in industrial art and trade schools for factory 
mechanics, so that they could receive the proper technical 
and art education suitable for their respective trades, de- 
velop their taste and ingenuity, learn the use of the latest 
machines, tools and appliances, and acquire new ideas capa- 
ble of practical application in the factory for improving the 
standard products or for designing or preparing new special- 
ties. The German industries now impress the artist into 

6i 



their service as they have the inventor, technician and scien- 
tific investigator. 

An industrial art school under municipal or State con- 
trol and largely maintained by public funds, is to be found 
in nearly every industrial city and town of Germany. Of 
these popular institutions the most celebrated are the Royal 
School of Industrial Art at Munich, Institute of the Indus- 
trial Art Museum at Berlin, and the Royal Academy of 
Graphic Arts and Bookmaking at Leipzig. 

Service of Schools in Promoting Germany's Export Trade. 

No single cause has contributed more to the industrial 
development and efficiency of the German nation than the 
trade schools. Their close connection with the associated 
industries and their vital importance to the well being and 
prosperity of Germany, which is so largely dependent upon 
manufacturing for the employment of its people, confirms 
the truth of the famous declaration of Bismarck that "The 
nation that has the schools has the future." While cheap 
labor in certain German industries has in the past undoubt- 
edly enabled their products to be marketed abroad in spite of 
high tariffs and the competition of protected industries in 
foreign countries, the advantage formerly derived from such 
cheaper production is gradually being eliminated by rising 
wages in Germany necessitated by the increasing cost of 
living and burden of taxation, by the world-wide growth 
of the factory system and the incidental passing of the 
small workshop and cottage industry, by the substitution 
of machinery for hand labor, and by the establishment in 
foreign countries of competing industries in many lines 
having the advantage of cheaper and more plentiful raw 
materials. The inevitability of these conditions has been 
long recognized by the leading German statesmen and pub- 
lic educators as well as by the business organizations, trade 
guilds and exporting manufacturers, — who have all been 

62 



working together to overcome the natural disadvantages 
under which Germany labors in international trade com- 
petition. As in France and Switzerland, the solution of the 
problem in Germany has been the more scientific, artistic 
and technical training of the workers, with the object of 
raising the standard of German products by the introduc- 
tion of more originality, skill, art and economy into their 
manufacture. 

Owing to the technical advancement and the compli- 
cated mechanical processes in many trades, there is neither 
time nor opportunity for learners to get the required funda- 
mental instruction in the factory or workshop. Therefore, 
the training for the manufacture of high quality and artistic 
goods would not be possible without the excellent system of 
industrial art, technical and special trade schools established 
in Germany during the past half -century. Germany's ex- 
port trade is largely dependent upon the efficiency, high 
standards and progressiveness of these industries, to the 
maintenance of which conditions the said schools are indis- 
pensable. 



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